One of the fastest growing types of identity theft in the US is Medical Identity Theft (MIT) of personal health information. Like traditional identity theft, MIT costs consumers hundreds of millions of dollars annually; but unlike traditional identity theft, MIT can potentially result in harm to a person's health.
MIT can occur at interfaces such as the doctor's office, the pharmacy, the healthcare insurer, the delivery carrier and even through the internet. Most of these services provide the consumer with little or no control over how their private medical information is displayed on documents and labels.
Access for MIT is as near as a victim's own trash. Most people are casual about their trash, although some, increasingly more, shred financial documents to avoid “dumpster divers” from stealing personal identity information. Ironically, however, most people do not think of their RX bottle as a source of personal information, and one's medical prescription bottles are not typically shred-able.
The data contained on a prescription-labeled bottle sometimes includes, in addition to the patient's name, the patient's address, type of medication prescribed, doctor's name, and pharmacy name, address and phone. The data also includes the number of refills available. The name of the drug printed on the label reveals the disease or condition being treated, which is regarded as highly sensitive personal information for many.
While a medical ID thief can obtain or pay for health care treatment and medications using another's medical information, the health record relied upon for repeat or chronic treatment can also be corrupted. The result could be devastating in more than a financial way. Delivery of critical, or life-sustaining, medications to one could be compromised by the false records created by another. Unexpectedly used up refills and terminated medical insurance could cause a victim inconvenience at best and loss of critical service at worst.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule in the US requires “covered entities” to safeguard protected health information (PHI). This includes prohibitions regarding the disposal of prescription-labeled bottles. Thus, the problem of removing PHI from refuse is not just a domestic problem but extends into the public domains of pharmacy and hospital.
The prior art field dealing with expunging medical information treats the problem on more of an institutional scale rather than one appropriate to a home or professional office. U.S. Pat. No. 8,459,578 to Fischer, for example, discloses a label peeling apparatus which includes a motor, gears, linkage arms and a table-mounted housing. The unfulfilled need is for a small hand-held tool for individual use.